A 180

So, wow... things have completely turned around in a short period of time!! :) Here are the updates:

1.) My car will be fixed tomorrow, which means I have to give my beloved rental (a Pontaic G6) back... but it's cool.



2.) I will officially be moving to the Phoenix area during the next two weeks! I found an awesome roommate (thanks, roommates.com!!), and she's finishing up school to be a teacher, too! Which brings me to the next point...

3.) Pending a smooth meeting-of-the-administration tomorrow morning, I will be teaching 6th grade math at a Phoenix-area middle school!! :D I'm scared as hell, but I think it can also be awesome!! (One subject... 50-minute periods... one grade... Heaven!) I'll create a separate blog for that, fear not.

4.) My dysplasia's still kicking my cervix's butt (heh), but I'll be having that procedure done in a week, while I still have health insurance. Shouldn't be life-shattering.


So, in short, things are MUCH better! Thank you ALL so much for your kind thoughts; I think that helped me a great deal!

And now, back to packing...

fuck. (pardon my french)

it's just been a really crappy past few days... here are my recent trials and tribulations:

-i got in a car accident on sunday (a guy turned into me- his fault- but i wasn't able to stop in time and essentially drove right into him)... we were both ok, and i got a free rental car for the time being, but...

-my insurance people called today, saying that they may take my car as a "total loss," i guess which means they'll give me some money and not my car. (curses- i need a car, and i like the one i've got!!)

-my cervical dysplasia (essentially pre-cancer) is back in full force, worse than last time. the doctor wants to be more aggressive with it, so i'm gonna have the leep procedure done sometime in the next week or two. yuck.

-i have to be out of my house in less than 3 weeks now, and i don't know yet where i'm going or what i'm doing.

-i have no idea what i want to do with my life in general.

yuck!!

and here are some of the things i've read about the leep procedure which have sent me into tears:

-Risks
* After the surgery, a small number of women (less than 10%) may have significant bleeding that requires vaginal packing or a blood transfusion.
* Infection of the cervix or uterus may develop (rare).
* Narrowing of the cervix (cervical stenosis) that can cause infertility may occur (rare).
* Once a woman has had LEEP, she has a higher risk of delivering a baby early.


Fantastic... and here we are.

as an aside, i got accepted into ucla's paralegal program, which begins in about a month... i have to decide very quickly if i will be moving to the los angeles area to go back to school for 4.5 months... it's gonna be one heck of an adventure. for now, adieu.

And so it goes...

(Sorry, I'm totally hooked on that Billy Joel song at the moment.)

Well, I just finished reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. PHENOMENAL book... wow. Mr. Pausch has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and doesn't have much logner to live. He gave a lecture at Carnegie Mellon University and then had it turned into a book. Incredible!

Anyway, this dying fellow's story got me sort of re-examining my life and trying to appreciate the things I take for granted. Though I realize it's not anywhere *near* as intense as dying, I know that my days at this job are numbered (18 left, to be precise)... and I'm almost done living in Cottonwood. Thus, I'm trying to take everything in I can. That includes appreciating(among other things) the following:

*the myriad stars I can see each night
*the smell of Cottonwood and northern Arizona in general: delightful and clean!
*my 5-minute commute to work each day
*having a HUGE room, a really nice house, and an awesome roommate (who's now in Colorado for the summer)
*my lovely cat, Isaac, for whom I'll probably have to find a new home soon
*complete and utter independence (which I may temporarily lose if/when I move to L.A.)
*having amazing and fun coworkers
*being proficient at my job and having downtime at work to plan for my future
*feeling like a member of the community, frequently knowing people around town
*the LOVELY scenery around here!!!!

However, I now accept that it's time for me to move on. At this point, I'm 95% certain that I will be moving to L.A. in a few weeks. While I'm scared by this concept, I'm also excited for the new opportunity it brings. I toured UCLA last weekend, and I was completely charmed by it!! I find out next Wednesday if I'm in or not and if I am, I'm going! :)

Also, trying to keep things fun, I've created some lovely LOLCat-eqsue images for you!! :) Enjoy, and I'll catch you guys on the flipside!

This blew my mind!

So sometimes, when I get so caught up in my own life, I tend to forget how crazy awesome the universe can be. I was perusing one of my new favorite sites (http://www.drudgereport.com/), and they had one of NASA's pictures of the day on their site.

Today's picture was Jupiter... apparently, Jupiter is creating more big, red spots (like the infamous one that is more than two Earth-lengths in diameter). Ever since I was a kid, I've been fascinated to no end with space, and with Jupiter in particular. First of all, badass name. Second, the big, red spot is enormous!! Everything we know in our own world is dwarfed by Jupiter's enormous storm. And now there are more! Crazy.

Anyway, I found another picture on NASA's site that just blew my mind...



I am always astounded when two seemingly-unrelated natural occurences (like, perhaps typhoons and galaxies!) look very similar. (I'm also intrigued by the similarities among trees, rivers, and lightning... they all take on similar forms!)

Anyway, it was the above image that reminded me that life can be pretty amazing. It's easy to lose sight of that when you're caught up in your own life and troubles, and it's SO nice to just look around you and appreciate stuff. So here I am, appreciating the majesty that is our universe. (No, I haven't gone off the deep end... I'm just trying to lighten up for a bit!)

On a personal note, I haven't yet decided on my own future. The two options I'm humoring right now are teaching in Phoenix or going to paralegal school in Los Angeles. We'll see; I have to make a decision soon!! Eek! However, this weekend should be awesome... I have a good friend flying out, and I'm hosting my first BBQ at my house tomorrow! Score! :)

Okee... I think that's about it for now. Don't forget to stop and take a look around, y'all!

Oh, and I'll end with a quote from John Mayer's song, "Say"...

"Take all of your wasted honor
Every little past frustration
Take all your so called problems
Better put 'em in quotations"

Decisions!!

So, my friends, here it is: another time of decisions. I have to choose a job and a place to live sometime within the next two months. It seems that I'll most likely go back to teaching, though I'm uncertain for how long.

I just had a job interview at our local middle school an hour ago. Although I was extremely nervous, it seemed to go reasonably well. I think it's a good thing when you're able to joke around easily with your potential coworkers.

Today was quite a day!! We had our community event "Body Walk," which takes area 3rd graders on a trip throughout the body. As in March, I was Dr. Lungenstein, who told kids (in a bad, fake German accent) about the dangers of tobacco use. Here's me in full costume:



So with yesterday, today and tomorrow, we'll have seen almost 500 third graders! It's pretty exhausting, but very enjoyable. That was today at work. After work, I had a CFT (Child-Family Team) meeting for my CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocate) girl... It was very interesting! I tried to help as much as I could, but I'm not sure what resources are available yet, so it was difficult to contribute much. Right after the CFT meeting, I had to jet over to the middle school for the aforementioned job interview. Overall, I think it was good. They were already familiar with the rap I performed last month at the school.



Aaaaaaaaaaanyway, I have somewhat of a dilemma... Do I go where the staff is cool and I know the area (Cottonwood), but the pay is just ok... OR do I go somewhere new and different that pays very well (Yuma)? I got another call yesterday from a district down in BFE: it's right near Yuma, which is on the Arizona/California/Mexico border. Wicked. It's 3 hours from both Phoenix and San Diego (in between), and it's only an hour or two from the ocean!! However, I don't know anyone there, and I'm very nervous about my Spanish-speaking abilities. (I'd have to practice a LOT!) However... it's a challenge and it's new and different (and it pays about $10,000/year more than the local job). Eek!! Decisions!! I'm just really, really unsure of what to do. Thoughts/comments are always welcome!

Okee... for now I'm off, but I'll catch you all on the flipside!

Peace out.

My runs!! :)

Yo, yo... finished my first 10k ever! And now I'm trying to upload Nike +'s stats from my Nano... I'm not sure how accurate they are (long story), but it's a start... chizzeck it out:

A coveted moment to myself

So my business class let out early tonight, and I'm left alone in the classroom with my thoughts. It's actually pretty cool.

Anyway, welcome to Mb's head. Feel free to stop reading at any point! :)

Last week, I watched the movie "The Kite Runner." I thought it was outstanding, because it made me think long after the movie was over. I also had had a brief bout of patriotism brought on by "The Kite Runner," which is no small feat. I realized that yes, as Americans, we do have a great degree of freedom which I usually don't give a second thought. We are able to dress and speak and live (basically) as we choose. It's really not such a bad life. No, I don't agree with most of our leaders, and no, I don't think war is a good answer... but my day-to-day life is pretty damn good, especially when compared to life in war-torn nations.

Next up: on being an over-achiever. I like to think of myself as a sporadic over-achiever. That is to say, when something takes my interest (be it a boy or a work project or a homework assignment or whatever), I take it and run with it. Lately, I've been having a great deal of fun working on Power Point presentations for the aforementioned business class I'm taking. I really enjoy putting those little puppies together. I think they're clever, amusing, and well-written (not unlike this blog??). They do have more photos, though. Let me try and insert some sample slides... (Click on any slide to make it full-screen.)



I did it!! That was my title slide from tonight's presentation. Here are some others I like:



(The next few are older)...








Ha! So I like to go "above and beyond" on stuff like this. It's fun. I just... I guess I just wish more people got more enthusiastic about more things. Hmm... like, I wish people in general had more of a passion for doing positive things (for themselves and others) than being so petty and unoriginal. Sigh.

Next... I'm freaking out about my job status. I still have 2.5 more months to find something, but it's unnerving as all get-out. My top 4 choices at this particular moment (in order):

1.) Teach outside the country with the Department of Defense Educational Activity (DoDDEA).
2.) Teach somewhere in Arizona (probably Phoenix).
3.) Go back to school for either a paralegal or other professional degree.
4.) Work as a detention officer for a year or so and learn an immense amount about humanity.*

So those are some of the options I'm weighing at present.

I think that's it for now. Oh, and I like my teenage smoking cessation class a lot. I'm on my second class, and this group is 6 boys who come from 4 different countries (South Korea, Brazil, Germany, and El Salvador). I realized today, during our discussion, that I genuinely like each one and want what's best for them. They, like so many teenagers I've seen, are intelligent and insightful. They have good thoughts and ideas, and I want to help empower them to do something positive with their lives. Hm. Maybe I *should* go back to teaching.

Fin.

*Mom, I know you won't like this fourth option. Sorry. But I think it'd be a fascinating study on human nature. I'll be safe, don't worry! :)